PULASKI CO.—After many months of court wrangling, the son of Pulaski County sheriff Randy Kern has given up protesting his innocence against federal charges involving being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Will Kern, mugshot
Will Kern, 32, entered a plea today in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, in Benton: guilty as charged in the federal felony which dates back to early June 2011.
His wife, a “former Pulaski County deputy” Tara Kern, 38, faced firearms charges in Pulaski County circuit court for giving the firearms to her hubby, ostensibly for the big boss hawg, her father-in-law/boss, Randy Kern…who has had his own battles in the federal court venue.
All of Tara’s charges were magically dismissed nolle pros late last September. It’s unknown if she opted to “testify truthfully” against her hubby, or if the OP in Pulaski County effectively split them, and she got the better end of the deal.
Will, who is actually an adopted or step-son of the not-so-good sheriff, will be sentenced in mid-April. His “convicted felon” status came from an arson case in the late 90s. He was actually represented by retained counsel in the case as opposed to a public defender. However, the feds must have had him dead to rights on the case, as, after months of sitting on a not guilty plea, he changed his mind on December 5 and entered a change of plea to guilty. Might’ve been the cooperation of the missus, might’ve been the effective counsel; who knows. It might also have been the “outpatient treatment for substance abuse” the feds let him have late last year after holding rear for awhile in the local pokey. Whatever the case, he’s looking at a lengthy BOP term, as the feds don’t play around with this weapons thing. Ask Raymond Martin.
Randy Kern, reviled Pulaski Co Sheriff, aka "Boob Bandit"
Now if the feds would just get interested in his dad. Randy Kern is probably one of the most repulsive characters to ever grace the pages of our publication, being sued time and again in the federal venue for sexual harassment by women with whom he either worked, or had business associations with as the sheriff of the county. Despite settling out of court on all of them, however, Kern went on to win the 2010 sheriff’s race by FOURTEEN VOTES over a qualified candidate, proving that there’s either too much fluoride in the water in Pulaski or dead people walked at least one day out of the year in 2010.
But that’s not why the feds should get involved. The matter is that several people who formerly worked for Kern can attest to dope missing from the evidence locker and the missus sheriff, Teresa Kern, also a deputy (even though she had no driver’s license at the time of her deputization, I mean, why leave anyone in the family out of a public paycheck, right?) having a mucous membrane problem, walking around the evidence locker area with the sniffles. Federal drug agents have been apprised of this. So far, there’s been no movement…but hey, it’s expensive to bust a sheriff. Ask Gallatin County.
So here’s your Friday night news; if you fine readers in Pulaski know of spurious activity with your repulsive sheriff, continue to share it with authorities, such as Drug Enforcement Agency or even Alcohol/Tobacco/Firearms. Because something inspired Will and Tara Kern to do what they did with the guns last year….and considering she was using sheriff’s department letterhead to make those weapons Will was toting across state lines look legit, there might just be some more ‘keepin it in the family’ than the powers-that-be are aware of.